Twist it up and off you pop!
Kev Lloyd has ridden scooters since the ’70s and now he’s a convert to the GTS. Although he loved the technical advantages of a GTS, he still hankered for a link to heritage…
Aquick phone call to Tony at Bedlam Customs set the ball rolling for a simple, neat paint job that answered both of Kev’s initial requests. Kev explained: “My dad lent me the money to buy my first GP and he never saw it back. Next was a GT175, an import from Holland, I loved that machine and it went like stink! I then got married, had kids and the scooter went. Through the latter ’80s and the ’90s my life was all bill paying. As I got straighter I bought a Vespa 90, and then a 1983 PX200, which I’ve still got. I had it about two months when the main bearing collapsed, meaning a full rebuild. During that time an old friend of mine had a GTS, as well as an SX200. He told me to have a go, he pestered me, I gave in and I was so impressed I bought this… and it’s a complete revelation. I love it. You just twist it up and off you pop. It’s easy and I’m at the stage of life that I like easy.
“As a younger man I played rugby for years, now I’ve got arthritis of the wrist and these scooters are just so easy to ride. The only downside is access to the engine and getting used to not going for a clutch or foot pedal. Twist and go, disc brakes front and back, anti-skid, I love it… I still like riding the PX, but this is a different thing altogether. The GTS is way more responsive and I’d say a whole lot safer, reliable and more comfortable. That’s not only due to engine size either. I had to get a 300, as I wanted enough power to get me out of trouble as quick as I could get into it. It’ll do 80mph, but I wouldn’t want to on 12-inch wheels. I just want the extra power ‘in case’. Having said that, 125s now are a different world to the 125s of our day. I have a friend who has a 125 GTS and it’ll stay with me. He’d always been a traditionalist, then he got a GTS. Everyone who tries one says how easy they are to ride. I suppose that’s why they all get stolen. I bought mine from a dealership in Sheffield with an incredible showroom full of all sorts of gorgeous bikes and the owner chooses to commute on a GTS.
A bit of Italian Magic
Kev expanded: “I wanted an Italian theme on it. I’d seen a PX in flat colours that I liked and wanted something along those lines. I asked Tony at Bedlam Customs in Bolton and he said he’d do something better. So I left it to him to do his magic. He also came up with doing the false beading on the panels. It works well and gives it a proper side panel feel. I love it, I really do. There are a few niggles, one is a wobble on the handlebars if you lose 2-3lb in your front tyre, another is not having a spare wheel, though I do know someone’s made a back carrier which holds a spare front wheel which you could put on the back to get you home. It’s something Vespa could think about. As regards tyres… I’m not a lover of the Continentals that are on it. I prefer Michelin City Grip, because they are all year round and they’ve never let me down. This will do me for another five years and after that, who knows? Having said that… I’d never sell the PX as my grandson’s got his eye on it. I still use the PX for local stuff, last year it won the best Vespa on Ginger’s Egg Run.”
Absolute Bedlam…
Tony from Bedlam informed us: “When Kev first got in contact, he was talking about a PX he’d seen and how he wanted it in Italian colours. I suggested that he should do something with a bit more depth and movement to it. I don’t like doing something when I know I can offer a better or enhanced alternative. Chatting through stuff always leads to a better result all round. Kev said he’d leave it with me as long as I got the colours right. While we’d been chatting, it came up that Kev still liked the look of the more traditional scooter type. While I was working out what to do, it occurred to me that one of the main aesthetic points of many older scooters was the removable panels, and that led me to think about applying the fake beading. Doing this also solved the problem of where to end the colours themselves. I put the ripples of the flag down first, then re-masked off and put the red and green on using Specialist Paints Candy from Sheffield. Quality products and dead reliable.”
So there you have it, love ’em or loathe ’em, autos are winning over hearts and minds of traditionalists one by one.